Who else is shocked that it’s already July?! I can promise you I am because I have no clue where the year has gone. Part of the reason for that blur is definitely due to the busyness that is life and work.

The second quarter of 2023 was filled with a lot of great activities, both work and personal and I can tell you it’s been memorable, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Let’s see, there was Turkey Season, Australia, Luke Day, & 6 Closings, and yes the market in Brown County, WI as well as the surrounding counties is still as crazy as it’s been but that hasn’t stopped NextHome agents from getting deals done for their clients.

I guess I’ll start with an update on the personal side; turkey season was ridiculously uneventful and sadly 0 birds during the week of my tag. Okay, well that was a fun update. How about Australia? My wife was attending the international Rotary Convention in Melbourne, Australia this year, so naturally I had to tag along with her.

We spent several days in Melbourne touring the city and surrounding countryside and thoroughly enjoyed our time in this beautiful and vibrant city. Yes, the flight was long, but well worth it for anyone considering traveling to the Land Down Under. Oh, I didn't mention but we had a surprise trip to San Francisco too; send me a message and I'll share the details. But this is a real estate blog, so I’m not going to spend too much time on this, other than these few photos:

On the real estate side, it was a good quarter for six different client’s of mine, who all accomplished their real estate goals. I did get to help one client sell a home and move on to with NextHome goals for a new adventure, which was quite fulfilling. And I got to help five clients buy homes and always enjoy these because I get to provide keys to their new home and see the look for pure joy on their face. It’s these moments that make this career worthwhile and why I keep doing what I do. Some of these clients also were moving to the area and this was exciting because I got to share my Food Blog with them and they were very excited to hear about this and be able to check out local restaurants.

Overall the real estate market in Brown County, WI has not slowed down in regards to demand, but it has slowed on the inventory side. Every day I pull active listings and record them in a journal, and I can tell you last year on July 7 there were ~223 homes on the market and this year there are ~174 so yes we still have an inventory issue. But there are still people buying homes every day because people still have reasons that force them to sell a home, and our agents at NextHome Select Realty work tirelessly to help our clients. We as a firm have ~30 deals closing in the next month, not bad for a firm of only 15 agents, and this means that during the past quarter we have gotten more than 30 homes under contract for clients, when there have only been less than 200 homes on the market. That's pretty good and it's evidence that yes, we go to work for our clients and help them realize their home ownership dreams.

But let's get back to the inventory issue that I touched on above, because yes we have a real issue here and I have a theory. We as a society have created a bottleneck and the only way to escape this is time and working together. Every day it seems more and more people are entering the first-time home buyer category because their rent is increasing and they realize the value of building equity. But the problem is, the people that are currently living in and own their first home aren't selling and upgrading to a newer or bigger home. Why? Well, what I hear from most people is because interest rates are too high to move and financially it doesn't make sense to go from a 3% - 7% mortgage when they don't have a NEED to move. There it is folks, the NEED and this is a big problem. Job relocations, marriage/divorce, increase in family size, or moving to assisted living; these are the main NEEDs to sell a house and if you don't have a NEED most people just aren't moving. This thus created a bottleneck for first time homebuyers, because those already in those homes are staying put and not moving to their "forever" home on a consistent basis.

We need to realize that gone are the days of 3%, and yes I've heard this from multiple lenders, and guess what 7% is still lower than where rates have historically been. Yes, rates could drop tomorrow, but they may also go up, so we as a society have to come to terms with this and accept it. You WILL refinance at some point in your life, stats show that, so wouldn't you rather lock in that "forever" home at 7%, while selling in a hot market, and then refinance in a year IF rates go down (because they may go up higher). All I ask is that you consider this when having conversations as a family and trying to decide when to start looking for your NextHome. And if you think it's worth a conversation, send me a message and we can have a conversation over coffee or a beer.

Working in real estate can be a challenge in times like these, but I can tell you that I keep a smile on my face and enjoy it. Why, because it's worth it when you get an offer accepted for a client. I'm looking forward to the celebrations and challenges of Q3 2023!!